Balkans

Victory for civil society as EBRD cancels loan for controversial Croatian dam

Today we're relieved in Zagreb as one energy project that could have had a destructive impact on Croatia's future has lost its financing and thus its chances of going ahead are drastically reduced: I’m speaking about the infamous Ombla dam, a project for an underground hydropower plant that would have practically destroyed a protected area close to Dubrovnik.

Tags: biodiversity Croatia EBRD hydropower success Vilina Cave Balkans EU

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Other harmful projects

Victory for civil society as EBRD cancels loan for controversial Croatian dam

May 28, 2013

Zagreb, May 28 – Croatian electricity company HEP and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have cancelled a EUR 123 million loan contract for the controversial Ombla underground hydropower plant near Dubrovnik, HEP has announced yesterday.

The EBRD financing would have covered the biggest bulk of the EUR 152.4 million estimated to be needed for construction.

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Energy & climate

Tags: Balkans

Letter on Kolubara lignite mine to the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia

Advocacy letter | May 28, 2013

The letter brings the resettlement and expropriation issues that are connected to the Kolubara lignite mine to the attention of the EU's representation in Serbia. Enclosed were recent letters to the EBRD and the Serbian finance minister (pdf) as well as a guardian article that illustrates the urgency of these problems.

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Energy & climate, Social & economic impacts

Divesting from coal is not ideology but climate science - a reminder for the EBRD

The energy director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has made astonishing statements about coal investments prompting Bankwatch's EBRD campaign team to react.

Tags: climate climate action climate science coal EBRD annual meeting energypolicy fossil fuels guardian Puliti Balkans Caucasus CEE Central Asia EU EU neighbourhood Southern Mediterranean

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Energy & climate

Greens appeal to PM and EBRD to scrap Ombla project

May 14, 2013

Source: , Dalje.com

About 40 civil society organisations from throughout Croatia and international organisations, including Friends of the Earth International, Bankwatch and Justice and Environment, have sent letters to Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic and the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Suma Chakrabarti, appealing that they abandon the plan for the construction of a harmful and expensive hydroelectric power plant on the Ombla river in the Dubrovnik area of southern Croatia.

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Energy & climate

Tags: Balkans

Serbia mining at centre of debate

May 14, 2013

Source: Harriet Salem, SETimes

The Kolubara mining basin covers 600 square kilometres, producing 30 million tonnes of lignite and more than 50 percent of Serbia's electricity annually. While government and international investors claim Kolubara is crucial to Serbia's energy security, critics said expansion has come at heavy social and environmental cost.

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Energy & climate

Tags: Balkans

Open letter to Serbian Minister for Finance and Economy concerning Kolubara resettlement

Advocacy letter | May 14, 2013

The open letter - signed by Srpski Centar Ekologije, Uneco Kolubara, and Bankwatch member group CEKOR - raises issues with resettlement and expropriations connected to the Kolubara lignite mine that are not adequately addressed.

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Energy & climate, Social & economic impacts

[Campaign update] EBRD still not withdrawing from damaging Ombla hydropower project, NGOs call on bank to heed new evidence

Despite having a slew of good reasons not to support the damaging Ombla hydropower plan in Croatia, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development still didn't confirm during recent meetings that it would withdraw from the project.

Tags: biodiversity Croatia EBRD hydropower Ombla Balkans EU

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Other harmful projects

Fair treatment is a long time coming at Serbia's Kolubara lignite mine

People from the Kolubara mine basin in Serbia have many stories to tell about the hardships they face due to the lignite mining operations. Serbian Bankwatcher Nikola Perusic adds his account to two stories in the guardian and in Bankwatch Mail 56.

Tags: coal energypolicy Kolubara mining resettlement water Balkans EU neighbourhood

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Energy & climate, Social & economic impacts, Other harmful projects

Open letter: Civil society asks EBRD to withdraw from Ombla hydropower plant project

Advocacy letter | May 13, 2013

A new nature impact assessment of the proposed Ombla hydropower plant showed that the project could harm many of the 68 identified cave species, including the endemic ones. Based on these findings, civil society groups are calling on the EBRD to pull out from the project for which it has approved a EUR 123 million loan.

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Other harmful projects